Gethric nods as Smoke draws near before shaking his head "No sign yet..."
A short, young woman makes her way up to the group. Her head is covered by a hood pulled low. Her clothing is dark and any metal bit that might show are blackened to keep them from reflecting light. The closer she gets, the more obvious it becomes that she's nervous.
I guess this is them, otherwise I'm in for a repeat of last week.
"Uh, h-hello, I-I'm Hawk. I-I was told to meet you here by Father."
The tiefling looks at the newcomer, scanning her from head to toe, but does not say anything.
Great, a timid runt, lets hope this one is not as useless as the blind one, the deaf one, and the undead one.
the blind one, the deaf one, and the undead one.[/i]
Felgrael nods to the human woman as she approaches although his hand strays down towards the weapons on his belt. And how is Father? Well I hope. Being of the family, you of course share the birthmark I assume?
Hawk pulls off the finger-less glove covering the hand with the mark. She keeps her head low, but shows the spider emblazoned on her hand, keeping her hand cupped to avoid showing it to anyone that might cause complications. When she talks again, her voice is steadier.
"He is well, but he had some choice words for me after my first errand didn't go so well."
I look at the midget. Your alive, it could have gone worse.
Bad humor:
Felgrael chuckles darkly. Pay no mind to Fish's mood. She received it bad from Father as well and is still a bit put off by it.
I assume you were briefed on what the job is?
"Yes, I was."
"Ah, yes, but... If I may, Smoke, and good morn to you, Hawk," Candy interjects, offering the girl with the hood a smile, "I was just inquiring if this errand was to be as... direct as our previous affair," she says.
"For myself, I do prefer a bit of... seduction, as it were..." she jests, clouded eyes flashing momentarily.
"Mornin'." Hawk answers. She listens quietly to the blind, or seemingly blind, woman, and makes mental notes on who is who.
The dark-skinned one is 'Fish'. The...man, I guess, is 'Smoke'. There's something strange about that one. That only leaves the half-orc and the blind woman. Great, not often I'm the least memorable one.
"Shouldn't we find out what the area's like first?"
That is the plan. Lets find this gnomish hermit and finish this.
Gethric looks the new arrival up and down, before speaking "Come, there is little that could not be said walking." and beginning to trudge in the direction of their quarry. As they left Egorian behind Gethric became more tense... before he always had his knowledge of the warren of city slums to fall back on...
To Candy's question of directness of approach: "We will see. If you can divine a way to kill him subtly then we can do so... otherwise my chain is freshly sharpened."
It is not him I am anxious about, Candy hums, but otherwise keeps silent.
"Divine... yes, but, knowing even a little about is own innate magics, and being such a private person, he's likely wards in place," Candy muses. "Or, it would be safer for all involved to assume that, and try not to rush to break any windows or bash through any doors," she suggests.
"Squid, darling, your eyes are better than mine, but I dare say I may be a better sneak," she begins casually. "Basic precaution against blunders would be to survey the area with our uncommon sight first, no?"
Squid? The man, Smoke, called her Fish earlier. One of those must be a nickname. Odd. I would have guessed that most people in this line of work would not get that close. Not that Squid or Fish are monikers I'd wish to have myself.
Hawk walks along the path and follows the others. Her head and the hood of her cloak stay down, but every now-and-then, her icy blue eyes can be seen peeking out at the others.
The half-orc scares me the most. He looks like he could snap me like a twig. He also looks like the most likely to give us away with that chain. I hope he has something else.
The blind woman is a sneak, that is certainly unusual. She's either faking it, or she has some other means of seeing. Either way, people are going to underestimate her. I'd be wise not to do the same.
"Would another set of eyes help? I'd like to see if I can lay for the land myself and find any sniping roosts that I can use."
Candy, if you wish to take the lead, feel free. Last time nobody wished to do so, thus it fell to myself and Spawn.
"Ah, you see, it is only because I am a bit of a leader among my kind and did not wish to presume," Candy sighs. Although the pay is far greater in this profession...
"Well, it is quite clear that not a one of us are gnomes," she says and looks pointedly at Spawn. "So should we be split in our search for information, or for his house, we should consider some manner of inducement to be traveling to the short side of town. Perhaps Spawn wishes to be seen as a mentor?" she purred and then frowned in consternation. "I am not certain about racial bias of gnomes, but I assume most humanoids will kill another for the right inducement," she says and shrugs.
"I thought that you and I could canvas the exterior for magical... tampering?" Candy says to Squid. "As Hawk is also skilled in the daytime, she could keep a watch for you. Spawn, you'll travel with me in the dark, I hope," she says to him. "We'll be looking for traps, alarms, any... sort of flare of magic, or even the lack thereof. And do try not to be seen."
Candy considers the road ahead. "We should find a neutral area to report our findings, and not be seen together too often..."
Candy realizes that she has forgotten Smoke. "And you, Sir. What would you do? As I am being all authoritative and conveniently leaving you out of my grand designs," she jests and laughs nervously.
Candy and Spawn are the blind woman and the half-orc. Candy is probably the woman. I can't see the half-orc picking out a name so ironic. Wait did Fish, or Squid, or what ever they call her, just suggest letting the blind one lead?!
Hawk looks up for the first time, and her expression is one of sheer incredulity. Her narrow, icy blue eyes are locked onto the back Squid's head, almost as if she's trying to divine the reasoning behind the implicit suggestion.
Great, looks like I am in for a repeat of last week.
Candy's planning of scouting out the target area suddenly put things into focus.
Okay that makes much more sense.
"Maybe we should make a camp outside of town that we can meet at. I can stay there and scout from the shadows."
Light or dark, either works for me. If Hawk can do a stealthy recon during the day, then we know what to expect at night. I believe most of us can see quite well in the dark and it would probably be easier to scan for magic when we were not being watched by guards during the day. As I have said previously, if there is a pond or pool or even a deep stream on the property, I can watch from there quite easily.
Well, that explains why she's called Squid, or Fish.
Ah if only the terrain would simply concede to our specific talents, every job would be a lot easier. But sadly... Felgrael adjusts his hat to cast a little more shade over his face, trying to block out the glare of the sun. I do detest the afternoons.
So does anyone have any information about what we can expect around the target's home?
"I'm afraid not. I spent most of my time in the city."
Hawk's half-hidden face takes on a look of concern, much like the look of someone remembering something that's been nagging them in the back of their mind for several minutes.
"You do know where this gnome lives, right?"
Unless we have no idea which mansion it is. I assume we head to the mansion and scout it out.
Knowledge(geography-untrained):
Knowledge(local-untrained):
Geography: The area around Egorian is mostly flat plains bordering lake sorrow. There's a small forest on the northwestern edge outside of the city that borders along the road to Westcrown. This also has a small stream that runs across the road and on the eastern edge of the forest proper. Many manors in this area sometimes have a small creek dug from this stream but such recreational streams are no deeper than ones shins and only function for recreational use and the occasional trout fishing.
Local: You know where the manor is by dint of elimination. You can only think of two manors that have such infamy. One is simply abandoned due to being overrun by devils after its former master had a binding mishap. Only carefully built wards keep the remaining devil servants from pouring into the countryside.
We head toward the other non-devil overrun and abandoned mansion. If there is no good place to view the mansion, we can do it at night. But try to find a place where the mansion can be watched from a distance if at all possible.
If the forest is close to the mansion, we find a place to watch from there.
You head towards the aforementioned mansion. Along the road you pass by a number of different carts and groups of people who eye you in varying degrees of suspicion and hatred. One old man actually curses and spits at Psyana before making the sign of Asmodeus in the air and speeding his tired horses faster up the road.
Eventually your forced to veer off as Gethric spots a small group of mounted Hallknights up the road. Deciding that discretion was inifinitely better than trying to take on fully armed hellknights your group retreats off the road and starts heading through the bush .
After a couple of hours it comes to high noon before you find yourself standing before a high stone wall (25ft in height) that separates the grounds from the rest of the world. The stone is naturally found around these parts and much of it is overgrown with the voracious species of vines that have plagued Chelaxian groundskeepers for centuries. A few tall trees in the area if properly climbed could give you a fair view on what is on the other side.
"Should find an alternate route back... Squid, any manner of erm... disguise spell you could use in the future, or... obscuring robes? Something?" Candy inquires after the run in with the old man. She is not trying to be demeaning, but asking a question.
When they reach the wall, Candy bites her lower lip and looks up the height of it. She can just barely see the top, and assumes that none will be able to see her from the other side. That does not, however, preclude magical sensors. She looks to Psyrana again, nods and casts and moves in that direction, sweeping for any magical auras, not excluding trees and the top of the top of the wall.
"Let me see what I can from up there."
Hawk points at one of the taller trees and starts climbing up it. Once she gets up above the walls enough to see into the grounds, she makes a mental note of every major landmark, every possible hiding spot, and any and all people and animals she sees.
I am who I am. If that bigot does not like me, that is his problem. If we meet him later, we can let Spawn return his courtesy with the chain.
I scan with Detect Magic as well.
Try to keep an open mind about helping us to avoid leaving a lasting impression with witnesses if you wouldn't mind, Fish.
Felgrael looks up at Shadow, lowering his voice. Anything that will help us?
Lilith detects no magic on the wall.
Hawk stays up in the tree scanning the grounds. It doesn't look like she heard Smoke at all, or at least isn't acknowledging that she did.
Odd, nobody's out here. Maybe paranoia is getting to me, but this screams trap.
Gethric remains hidden, instead allowing the others to take their look. He massages the spot on his palm where the spider was etched and waits. Soon, and we shall see the truth of their words in actions... or I will spell out their failure with spilled blood...
When his fellow followers of the spider return, he listens to their reports passively and attentively.
Candy returns looking perturbed. She likely does not see where Hawk has gone, but then, she is quite used to not seeing a great many things.
"No magic that I could detect," she reports in a whisper. "Strange, though..."
Is shadow going to report what she's seen or what is everyone else going to do?